Remembering that Christmas is really Christmas Eve around here. Well it is and it isn't all at once. The celebration really happens at midnight between the two days. The idea after we woke up was to get cleaned up and head to her house from the apartment where we would drop off some stuff then go out to get a lunch and do some shopping. We originally tried Plaza Aventura which is right near their house but there was no place either of us really wanted to eat so we instead took a taxi to Plaza San Miguel which has better restaurant options. We ate at Trattoria de la Bodega which had just opened the Friday before. It is a restaurant that we have eaten at before in Miraflores and in Larcomar. We each got a glass of house wine. Daniela got a bife ala parilla which is grilled steak and I got raviolitos de gallinas which is fusion dish of Italian and Peruvian foods. It was little raviolis of aji de gallina which is a shredded chicken dish. It was served with a sauce made from mild chili peppers and had parmesan and walnuts sprinkled on. It was excellent. The steak was very tough however and Daniela didn't really end up eating much and they took it off the bill. It is a shame because it looked very nice and even had a good flavor but you had to chew for hours with it cooked to medium. I tried to eat their apple pie ala mode but I couldn't make it half way through because it was gigantic and there was no way I could finish it even though it was really good. Daniela had tocino del cielo which is a custard that has coconut and caramel and a strawberry sauce. That was also huge and made up for her steak. She had a tea and I had a coffee to go with the dessert.
After eating we spent quite some time shopping through the very crowded mall and even going into a couple other places. We had to buy a couple small things but it was not easy to find. Most of the stores in the malls are electronics or clothing. We did eventually find what we needed but it was past 7 by the time we finally got back to the house.
Donna was supposed to cook the Christmas turkey dinner for us but was a bit late in arriving. We relaxed for a while until she showed up then Daniela and I helped a bit with the cooking and we also went out and bought some fireworks (though only one thing). Edwin was around for a little while but left to go to his parents' house before we got back from buying the fireworks. As with last year the fireworks started around 9 o'clock and gradually progressed until it sounded like a war zone near midnight. We had a prayer then a toast at midnight as the baby was placed into the manger in the nativity set. Then we swapped our gifts then went out and lit off the fireworks. By the time we had finished all the tasks it was around 1:30 I think and we were able to start serving the meal. Donna did a great job with turkey. She also made sweet potato puree, "Russian salad" which is mixed vegetables including corn, beets, carrots and green beans, rice that was cooked with an olive puree so it looked purple and steamed potatoes with a green sauce on it. All the food was excellent but it was really a lot and I was stuffed by the time we had finished. We had brought a bottle of chardonnay but it was not really a hit with everyone and I think only her brother and I finished our glasses. I didn't much care for it either but I am not a fan of white wine anyway.
We typically were supposed to have panetone for dessert along with hot chocolate but it was late and everyone was stuff so instead we all went to bed for the evening. I had to put my contacts in a couple of glasses of water because I had not prepared to spend the night there.
The pictures from this "day" are located here.
No comments:
Post a Comment